


Outbrave

by ideallyqualia



Series: Rare Pairs [80]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 16:30:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11165700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: Shirabu has his own off-court meeting with Kageyama and Hinata.





	Outbrave

Time fell slow and heavy in the moment Shirabu recognized Kageyama jogging on the street. Shirabu had been on his way to the grocery store to buy a few things, and on the other side of the street, going the opposite direction, was Kageyama.

Shirabu jerked his head away. Kageyama still crossed the street, approaching with quiet but recognizable footsteps crunching on the rocky pavement until he stopped on the sidewalk.

"Are you Shiratorizawa's setter?" He asked.

"Yes. What're you doing here?" Shirabu asked, his voice sharp, definitive like the end of a conversation.

"I'm on a long run."

"You should go finish it then."

Kageyama didn't move. He continued to stare at Shirabu with an unwavering gaze.

"Do you need something?" Shirabu asked.

"No." Kageyama didn't take his eyes off Shirabu.

Shirabu turned in hesitation. He faced forward. "I'm busy, I have things to do."

Kageyama's hands tightened into fists in front of himself, and his thumbs fidgeted, almost out of sight.

Shirabu sighed. "What do you want."

"Nothing," Kageyama said, his voice small and irritated. He stared back at Shirabu with hard eyes, and his face twisted in a couple places like a bad reaction to a sour candy.

Shirabu had no idea what that meant, or what kind of face he was trying to make.

"You clearly want something." Shirabu shifted on his feet. "Look, I really am busy, so either you tell me whatever it is and get it over with, or I'll just leave."

Instead of choosing either option, Kageyama turned and ran.

 

* * *

 

Shirabu knew he was going to bump into Kageyama again. Starting something and then running off left something unfinished, and from Shirabu's experience, people didn't like to leave things unfinished. Unless it was personal, but Shirabu barely knew Kageyama; there was nothing personal between them for anything to be a problem.

Shirabu was a little hopeful about Kageyama appearing again. Giving up on something so small was not something Shirabu wanted to see in the setter of the team that _defeated_ Shiratorizawa, and he also really wanted to know what he had been trying to say and why he didn't say it.

He wasn't surprised or disappointed when Kageyama appeared again a week later, out for another run.

Shirabu's eyes followed Kageyama as he ran up to him. "Are you finally going to say something?"

Kageyama's mouth set to the side in a frown. "Look, I'm... I wanted... You're, you're a setter, right?"

Shirabu fixed him with a look that slowed down time again. " _That's_ what you came to me for?"

"No," Kageyama said. "I'm here because you're a setter, and I wanted to talk with you about that."

"What about that?"

"I want to play volleyball with you."

"You mean, for practice?"

"Yeah." Kageyama nodded. Despite the indecisive wobble in his mouth, a faint sparkle flickered in his eyes.

"I'm in the middle of some errands." Shirabu turned with his hand in the air to dismiss him.

"Wait! Can we trade numbers or something? I really want to play volleyball with you."

Shirabu patted his pockets and pulled out a pen. "Do you have any paper?"

"No."

Shirabu raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't think I'd need any on a run..."

"Just give me your arm," Shirabu said.

Kageyama offered his hand, and Shirabu turned it over and wrote on the back of it, holding his wrist carefully to avoid palm contact and awkward warmth.

"There." Shirabu dropped Kageyama's hand. "Go back to your run. I have to go."

Kageyama obeyed and ran as Shirabu faced the direction of a store he had to visit.

 

* * *

 

Out of curiosity, Shirabu decided to ask Ushijima about Kageyama and Hinata. Ushijima had talked about them once, when he let them visit Shiratorizawa and then got scolded by Washijou for it.

"Kageyama? He's arrogant, but no more than Hinata," Ushijima said.

" _Kageyama_?" Shirabu sat back in his seat and thought. During their match, he _had_ been arrogant and flashy, but off the court, he could barely speak.

Shirabu looked at Ushijima. The same thing could be said of Ushijima, now that his thoughts of Kageyama had a chance to sit beside thoughts of Ushijima: volleyball fanatic, and socially inept outside of that.

"I think...I understand..." Shirabu muttered.

 

* * *

 

He didn't expect Kageyama to actually call, so when Shirabu accepted a call and heard his voice, he jolted in surprise.

"Kageyama?"

"Yes, it's Kageyama," he reassured. "When do you want to play volleyball?"

Shirabu prickled in irritation. "I'm busy this week."

"Then next week?"

"Fine. Where?"

"At Shiratorizawa...?" Kageyama asked.

"No way. Ushijima got in trouble last time you visited."

"Really?"

"Did you think our coach would _like_ it if rival schools came to watch us practice?"

"I'm not coming to watch you practice, though...?"

"Yeah, well..." Shirabu muttered sounds that blended into wordlessness.

"Come to Karasuno, then. Saturday at four."

Shirabu acknowledged it and then hung up. He debated not cooperating with him at all, but if Ushijima had let him in, then Shirabu wanted to see what Ushijima saw, too.

 

* * *

 

Shirabu arrived on time and found Kageyama already there, along with Hinata. They were arguing and fighting each other, Kageyama's hand on Hinata's collar and Hinata's elbow in Kageyama's stomach. At the sound of Shirabu's footsteps in the door, Hinata pulled away and bounced.

"You actually came!"

Shirabu deflated. "You're here too?"

"I wasn't going to let him get away with this." Hinata ran and picked up a volleyball off the floor.

"He butted in and wouldn't leave me alone, sorry." Kageyama shrugged.

Shirabu almost thought Hinata meant he wouldn't let Kageyama get away with bugging him and dragging him all the way to Karasuno, but he was wrong. Hinata had a zealous streak too, and he wanted to do everything. At the end of an hour Shirabu needed to rest from trying to keep up with them.

"Are you guys even human?" Shirabu asked.

Neither of them answered. Kageyama walked closer and stopped in front of Shirabu, staring down at him. "You're already tired?"

"I'm an ordinary person, you know." Shirabu took a drink from his sports bottle and wiped his forehead.

Hinata crouched beside Shirabu to peer at him. "How do you survive all those matches in a row at Nationals?"

"By not wasting all my energy practicing volleyball with people I don't know." Shirabu dusted himself off. "We have more than one setter, too."

"We need to get another setter for when Suga graduates," Hinata said to himself.

"You mean you didn't even give it your all?" Kageyama asked, his voice prickling in irritation.

Shirabu covered his eyes with his arm, already regretting his words and the entire day.

"You _have_ to come back," Kageyama said like Shirabu should've known better.

He started to wish Ushijima had warned him properly.

 

* * *

 

Shirabu almost always wanted to be left alone. Even among his friends, sometimes enough was enough, and he needed time away from them more than with them. With strangers, Shirabu would rather not be with them at all.

Still, he hated to break change and promises, and after being sucked into one practice, and then two, Shirabu found himself in a loose routine of occasional practice. As long as they didn't force him to have a conversation, he could live with it. Kageyama clearly wanted to ask Shirabu questions about volleyball and setting, but he was so terrible at talking that he resorted to just watching Shirabu play.

"I'm getting really tired of Hinata," Shirabu said one day after a few practices had passed, when only Kageyama was early. "Don't you think he's annoying?"

Kageyama shrugged. "Yeah, but he's great at volleyball."

"That's not what I care about. He spends too much time talking." Shirabu glanced at the door and windows to make sure Hinata wasn't around. "Can't you un-invite him?"

Kageyama choked, and then coughed into his arm to recover. " _Un_ -invite him? When he already knows you come here to practice?"

"Is that a problem? Is it that impossible to make him go away?"

Kageyama's mouth tightened into a small point of a frown. "You mean, just us? That would just make it us, then."

"Isn't that what you wanted this entire time, right from the start?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." Kageyama scratched the back of his head. "But it's hard to practice with two setters."

"Don't tell me you didn't even have a plan."

Kageyama turned sheepish. "No, but... I can also spike, I trained as a spiker."

"Really." Shirabu was surprised, and he meant to sound like it, too, but Kageyama didn't react or look flattered.

"Why did you even make me come here if you had no idea what you wanted?" Shirabu stared at him hard, returning the time and favor from when they had first met.

"Really, I wanted to talk with you about setting."

"Can't you just talk, then, instead of going through this trouble?"

Kageyama opened and closed his mouth a few times before he could say something. "Just talk?"

Shirabu covered his mouth and rubbed over his eyes as he realized that he wanted to avoid volleyball and talking with Hinata by talking with Kageyama. Originally he had been curious about Hinata too, since Hinata was also there when they met Ushijima on the street, but his interest died after one practice with no other teammates to serve as a buffer.

"Or, at the very least, we can run and hide and make Hinata think we left without him."

"You...really don't like him, do you." Kageyama cracked his fingers idly, and then walked outside past the gym door. Shirabu followed him.

"I think I'd be less tired with him not around."

"Alright, I get it. Let's go somewhere else." Kageyama locked the door.

**Author's Note:**

> (General A/N that exists at the end of all my fics): I find unsolicited concrit really rude, I'm not looking for any. Please don't tell me someone was OOC/something happened you didn't like/it's too short/etc. in any bookmarks or comments.


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